Query -- Scantily Clad

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:07 PM -0500 1/28/03, Baker, John wrote:
>         I'm not sure I really see the claimed evolution of the
>phrase in your examples.  As far as I can tell, "scantily clad"
>simply means "not wearing enough clothing," and it's maintained that
>meaning over time, although the phrase seems to have become more
>common and to be applied more frequently to sexually provocative
>attire.  I suspect that such evolution as has occurred tells us less
>about the phrase than about societal mores and changing fashions:
>In recent decades, society has allowed women to wear less clothing
>but has condemned them for it.  When men wear less clothing,
>however, it's not necessarily seen as sexually provocative.
>
>John Baker

cf. _scanties_ for women's (and not men's) undergarments.  I thought
this was a relatively new usage, but consider:

            "Shuffle Off to Buffalo", from 42nd Street, 1932, Dubin
(lyrics)/Warren (music)
                          Dick Powell singing to Ruby Keeler:

                           I'll go home and get my panties
                           You go home and get your scanties
                           And away we'll go;
                           Mm, off we're going to shuffle,
                           Shuffle off to Buffalo

Interestingly, this relaxes the [+female] constraint on "panties"
while maintaining it for "scanties".  This constraint is observed by
all the OED cites (except the ironical one from 1959) and implied by
the gloss itself:

SCANTY
n. Now only pl. Underwear, esp. short knickers or panties for women.
colloq. (orig. U.S.).

1928 J. P. MCEVOY Show Girl (title-page), The hottest little wench
that ever shook a scanty at a tired business man.

1929 M. LIEF Hangover 269 There's no law in New Jersey forcing a
husband to look at his wife's scanties, is there?

1934 T. SMITH Bishop's Jaegers 5 Whereas men..still struggle along
with the old-fashioned..name of drawers..women have far outstripped
them. Theirs must be known now by such frivolous... appellations as
panties, scanties.. step-ins..and other similar..terms.

1944 E. CARR House of All Sorts 101 A puff of wind from the open door
caught and ballooned the scanties.

1951 M. DICKENS My Turn to make Tea iv. 73 No don't go, dear. You've
seen me in my scanties, anyway.

1959 'O. MILLS' Stairway to Murder vii. 75 'Now you've got some
midnight-blue scanties.' He held up Charles's underpants
apologetically.

1964 J. HALE Grudge Fight I. i. 22 Bennet, who always looks after
number one, is wearing Scapa
scanties next to the skin. Long underpants and a long-sleeved vest
made of thick, oily wool.

1977 Time 24 Jan. 46/1 Maddie's blue scanties emerge from the M.P.s'
briefcases at inauspicious moments and whip through the air like
naval pennants.

larry